[Wager] Things friends don't do! (Victor)

[Bob Barton]

Victor did not have to tell Bob about the rules. Bob always had the rules in mind because it will always be the better to...bend them. However, for that one short moment in time the rules were all forgotten when Bob saw the way that Victor vaulted over him. Even the dagger that was brandished at him escaped his eyes because "that...that is what I told you to teach me back at Ravok!" Too bad Victor was truly like his namesake. A bird and those are always flying free and doing whatever they want.

At least at that point, Victor did not need something like hypnotism to put the fear in Bob. The dagger that he saw then did its job well but Bob did not ever have the intention to hit his friend. With neither bowing out, he gave a sigh reluctantly agreeing that "its my turn" to set the challenge but still he had no idea what it is that he should do. Something to beat Victor in. Something...something...

"No ale either?" Bob asked referring back to their first ever "challenge." If Victor was so fixated about his dagger, "that would do" and Bob took up his own stating that its going to go "one for each finger." It did not make sense then but that number was the best for his idea. Not too much for him, but not too little for Victor himself. If there were people. like Victor, going to work on Bob's own disadvantages, why shouldn't he do the same?

Even if he knew that, the sweat still fell from his brow when he put his left hand on the table and spread his fingers apart. After taking some time to measure up the distance and work up the courage, Bob raised his dagger and started to plunge the dagger between gaps as high as the tips he could go where the gaps were the widest of course. One, two, three and that was just the number of fingers he had in that hand.

"Your turn" Bob said finally stabbing the dagger into the table with a gasp of relief. Yes he knew that it was unfair to use that hand but there was always a justification in mind even if it was untrue. "You know how hard it is to control the dagger when the time to switch back is shorter?" If Victor did not believe it, "you should try it for yourself."

[Victor Lark]

His eyebrows stretched upward, mimicking awe or excitement or even fear. All other risks aside, this was somehow more dangerous than all the others, perhaps made worse by the absence of so many fingers. Victor laced his own together at the edge of the table, reveling in the short moment between the retrieving and returning of the dagger. His mouth hung with the weight of astonishment as his tongue searched for the words to accept the challenge.

And then his shaking head rocked from admiration to incredulity to disappointment. His hands parted and rose in defeat. “I can’t do that,” he announced, and there was a peculiar lilt of a smile in the defeat. “No, not for me. Far too dangerous.”

A sigh escaped him as he stood, kicking his chair noisily backward and taking the dagger from where it had been embedded in the wood. He inspected its side and its edge as if it could have accrued some blemish in the short time he was without it, then he wiped it on his thigh and sheathed it. He was grinning when he looked up to meet Bob in his gleaming bead of an eye. “I guess that means you win!”

He waved to the man behind the bar and, upon getting Thorren’s attention, pointed down at the dwarf. The Wager’s owner gave Victor a look of disbelief, to which he replied with a happy nod. He stepped toward Bob and gave him a hard slap on the shoulder. “My job is yours now, friend, along with a ten-thousand-miza debt and a nice straw bed, if you like. A good day to you.”

Tipping an invisible hat to his old acquaintance, Victor crossed to the door.

[Bob Barton]

It would take a while for Bob to actually realize who won but until then he was going to bask in his victory and what was a victory if it was not a full one? Bob won the match true but he needed a complete victory in Victor's mind as he tried to persuade his friend on continue and perhaps up the ante. it was a gamble by Bob's own design but "you know that I wouldn't do anything too dangerous my friend" returning the smile under a mistaken assumption that his friend was sharing in his victory. "Are you sure you don't want to try? I mean anything I can do, you can" and vice versa unless it involved height. "I don't mind a retry but maybe you can add something in?" Bob asked greedily thinking that Victor's 'life' would not be enough and well, "It wouldn't sound too good if a Lark got beat by a dwarf am I right?" in a try to goad the man.

But why would Victor take that fool's bet even if he looked unhappy when he kicked the chair? Perhaps he was offering Bob the dagger but no, he was not. Instead, "you're giving up?" Bob asked a little bit surprised "just like that?". And the way Victor was smiling, it was as if something was off about this whole thing. Bob looked at the man Victor waved as just as his so called friend pointed back at him wondering if he was going to get something more but he would not expect "a ten thousand miza debt?" A sum that he even had a hard time believing in when Victor said. Trying to get his arm over Victor's shoulder he asked "my friend, that's a good joke but really?" before releasing Victor in disbelief. "Petch you Victor, what the hell is going on?" he yelled at the man as he walked out of the door.

Bob should have anticipated something like this happening eventually but he also expected something more from someone like the Lark. He was not happy about the outcome but a bet was a bet. Win or lose he had to accept it. Victor had played the game well and as much as Bob wanted to escape before Thorren got to him he knew he would not succeed especially for a place like the Wager. Still if Victor could get out of the debt like that, so could he. At least now he had a job he could do for a while until he can find some other sucker, not to admit that he was one but that does not mean he was willing to forgive Victor anytime soon. "You better watch yourself...friend..."